Air spun gyro rotor



`Patented Nov. 23, 1943 Y .2,335,106 AmsPUN Grao Ro'ron J Leslie F. Carter, Leonia, N.`J., Gyroscope Company, hic.,

corporation of New Yor Application March zo, 1940, serial No. 325,004` claims. (ci. 25a- 50) This invention relates to improvements in the construction of air spun rotors for gyroscopes. While applicable to all types of air spun rotors,

it has special adaptation to the rotors of direc-` for airplanes, in which it is the buckets or blades termiend walls. one adjacent each tional gyroscopes important to have nate in well dened of two spinning jets.

The prior construction of such rotors is well exemplified in the patent to Bert G. Carlson, No. 2,061,894, dated November 24, 1936 (see the rotor and jet construction shown in Figs. 6 and 9), and in the patent to M. F. Bates, No. 2,047,186, dated July 14, 1936. According to this prior construction. the rotor was turned down adjacent both sides, leaving an integral circumferential raised ring around the middle, the width of the blades. A cutter was then used to cut blades or buckets clear across this integral ring and, finally, fiat rings were shrunk on each side of the blades to form the end walls. The manufacture of this rotor involved, therefore, several expensive operations and also reduced the moment of inertia of the rotor materially by cutting down the diameter of over half of the rim face.

According to my. present invention, I tum a circumferential groove in the periphery of the rotor of the width o1' the blades desired, leaving both sides of the rim of the full original-diameter. The blades are then inserted in the form of a crimped strip of sheet metal which is fastened securely in place in the groove, all as more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a front elevation, partly in section, of my improved rotor, designed for a directional gyroscope.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same, also partly in section.

Fig. 3 is a section of the rotor before the sheet metal blades are inserted.

Fig. 4 is a perspective View of a portion of the strip used for blades.

Fig. 5 is a side elevation partly in section, of a rotor for a gyroscopic horizon or gyra-vertical constructed in accordance with my invention but before the blades have been applied thereto.

The rotor i is preferably made of solid stock of some heavy metal, such as brass, and is usually provided with a hardened steel shaft 2. A central circumferential groove o1 channel 3 is cut in the circumferential face of the rotor, thus forming end walls 4 and 5. Also there is cut on each side of the groove a shallow circumferential notch or groove 6, 6.

necting inclined fiat surfaces Il.

assignor to Sperry Brooklyn, N.`Y., a

I also form out of a strip of sheet metal the blades for the rotor. For this purpose, a thin strip of sheet metal may be rolled between specially shaped teethto form a corrugated strip 'l v'as shown in Fig. 4, having alternate substantially vertical faces 8 to form the surfaces or buckets for impingement of the jet or Jets 9, l 0, and con- This strip is Wound within the groove 3 and is cut so that it is slightly longer than the circumference so that one end I2 is hooked over the top of the other end I3 at the last vertical portion 8'. Finally the thin lips I4 and I4 formed by the grooves 6 and 6 are rolled over, as shown in Fig. 2, against the top of the blades or buckets, thus firmly holding the strip in place andpreventing its creeping around the rotor or flying off the rotor.

It Will thus be seen that I have retained the i end walls 4 and 5, usually employed for the erection of the gyroscope in connection -with the adjacent Jets 9 and l0, which spin the rotor, while at the same time greatly reducing the cost of manufacture by avoiding cutting teeth in the solid stock. I have also retained the greater portion of the weight of the rotor at the periphery, which of course retains a greater moment of inertia for the same weight and overall dimensions of the rotor. Since the size and weight of aircraft instruments is extremely limited, such factors become of primary concern.

Fig. 5 illustrates how my invention may be applied to the rotor I' of a gyroscopic horizon or gyro vertical. In this construction, the channel 3 for the corrugated strip may be formed in the same manner as before but it is shown somewhat below the center of gravity of the rotor since it is customary in these rotors to raise the center of gravity about the center of the shaft 2'. Obviously, my invention may be applied also to many other forms of air spun gyroscopes, and, in fact. to turbines in general.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A solid metal rotor for directional gyro-V scopes having a central channel in the periphery of its solid rim forming a circular depression having two side walls and a bottom, a crimped or corrugated strip of sheet metal placed in said circular depression and resting on the bottom thereof between said side walls, the crimps of said strip forming buckets adapted to intercept a spinning jet, and means for holding said strip in place within said channel.

2. A gyro rotor as claimed in claim 1, in which the opposite edges of the channel in the rotor are rolled over to hold the strip in place.

3. A solid metal rotor for gyroscopes having a central channel in theperiphery of its solid rim which forms va circular depression with two side walls and a bottom, a bucket vforming crimped or corrugated strip of sheet metal placed in said circular depression and resting on the 4. A bladed rotorhaving a heavy rim, a shallow channel in the periphery of said rim, a circ umferential depression adjacent each inner wall of the channel, and a crimped or corrugated strip of sheet material wholly Within said channel forming blades, the inner edges of the channel adjacent said depressions being turned over the outer edges of said strip to hold it in place.

5. A solid metal rotor for gyroscopes having a central channel in the periphery of its solid rim which forms a circular depression with two side walls and a bottom, a metal strip having a bucket forming peripheral surface situated in said cir-v f cular depression and resting on the bottom therebottom thereof between said side walls. and. i means for holding saidk strip in place within said channel.v Y

of between said side walls, and means for holding said strip in place within said channel.

LESLIE F. CARTER. 

